Never in my wildest dream did I think I would be going on a road trip to Kulim with a team of dedicated Toastmasters, as part of our preparation for Division W TLI2 scheduled to be held on 11 December 2010. It all began with an announcement by TLI team that there will be two TTT (Train the Trainers) sessions to prepare all Area Governors for our respective Division’s TLI2.

Having missed the first TTT session on Sat 14 November due to an outstation work assignment, TLI Publicity Chair Kuok Sum suggested that I attend the second TTT to be held at Kulim on Sat 27 November. With TLI Chair Dennis offering his services (and car) to drive us to Kulim, we began our road trip at 8 AM that Saturday morning.

Someone should have warned me that TLI Chair would be subjecting me to a series of tough questions about my Area Governor duties during the road trip. Although brutal in his questioning session (he would not take “Not sure” for an answer), he was also very generous in his sharing about his Toastmasters journey.


Arriving at Kulim in the nick of time, TLI Chair and Co-Chair, Dennis and Pala, started with what was the lessons learnt from TLI1. This was followed by tips and techniques for facilitating discussion which were useful for us, as all of us would be conducting the Moments of Truth (MOT) break-out sessions for our respective areas.


At 6 PM, the TTT session was over but it was not the end of the day for our intrepid TLI team. After a hearty dinner and having taken our shower, work continued for our team.

This was the scene that transpired. We were in a house, somewhere in Kulim. The time was 10 PM. All was silent in the house. TLI Chair was lying on the floor. He was not asleep. TLI Co-chair was rocking his son to sleep. TLI Registration Chair Choi San was beside me. The only sound to be heard was the voice of TLI Publicity Chair as he rehearsed his presentation for TLI2. He was the centre of our attention. TLI Chair had warned him, “I am going to be brutally honest with you in my evaluation. This is our last practice session, so I will have to be brutally honest.”

It was scene that you will never see in a Hollywood movie. We ended the session at 12 midnight. While we slept, TLI Publicity Chair continued working on his presentation up to 2 AM. TLI Co-chair was beside him, half asleep and continued to provide moral support up to 2 AM.

The next morning we were at Taiping, attending an Advanced Evaluation Workshop conducted by TLI Chair, at the invitation of Division H Governor, May Cheah.

By 7.30 PM, we were back in KL. It had been an eventful weekend. It was an eye-opener for me in terms of the amount of planning, preparation, time and effort that the TLI team had put in for our TLI2.

Back in KL, Division W TLI2 venue was still in doubt. We had made inquiries at 9 venues without success so far. By 30 November, when our ninth option was rejected, we decided to go for the only option left which was Uptown Conference Centre. Division W Governor Vincent requested for District Governor Thanni’s permission to proceed with this option, as it was beyond the TLI2 budget allocated for our Division. For this venue, we could only have 1 elective instead of 4 offered by TLI team. To have an additional elective meant renting another hall, which was beyond our budget.


With permission granted from District on the venue selection and cost, we proceed with our final preparations. Three of us attended Division B TLI2 on 4 December to observe the proceedings as preparation for our event. Our Division Council team met up on 8 December to go thru one last time, the details of our event.

After all the preparation, it was finally SHOWTIME on Sat 11 December 2010 !

Photos contributed by TLI Publicity Chair Kuok Sum